


Avon computes

by JackieSBlake7



Category: Blake's 7
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-20
Updated: 2016-06-20
Packaged: 2018-07-16 06:07:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,047
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7255579
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JackieSBlake7/pseuds/JackieSBlake7
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Avon after the revolution is made an offer he cannot refuse.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Avon computes

On those few occasions when, as "a person associated with the rebel movement" he had indulged in a fantasy about his life if the revolution should succeed, Avon had imagined his current situation.

It had been enjoyable living, and pursuing his plans, without having anyone after him - except for those his services, and to praise him for his contribution to the revolution's success. What had happened on Gauda Prime was treated, given the limited information that had been "leaked" on the subject, for general purposes, as the subject of distorted rumour based upon events that had happened as the "official" forces took over and Federation propaganda rather than the near tragedy it was. Among those who had been present it was accepted that what had happened was the product of "a misunderstanding of a confused situation." Which was at least partially the truth.

Being allowed to investigate the Federation's computers to his heart’s content, so long as he did not "do anything inappropriate" had been most enjoyable - especially as it had been made clear that it would be assumed that any deductions made in the course of his activities would be "reasonable." As in fact they had been… he had found the challenges presented more to his taste than the riches he had once claimed were a dominant. That researchers and others were prepared to pay him for "information found" which he would have given them anyway was amusing: he was pleased at the number of times "with grateful thanks to Kerr Avon for his help" appeared in books and projects.

Avon had not intended to get involved in anything untoward... but it was #fun# seeing what he could do with what was available to him. The risk of being found out was outweighed by, or was even part of, the pleasure of investigation. Finding that Deva and other computer experts he was in discussion with were involved in similar activities made the situation more enjoyable. What they were developing was. for most of them. a game: others were co-opted, to explore the challenges, admire the elegance of design on occasion and otherwise enjoy themselves.

It had been Belkov who had encouraged them to get involved in more creative activities... though the group had already been willing participants investigating areas that lay on the borders between legality and criminality. To outwit those who manipulated the system for illicit gain, it was argued, they had to think like them, and see how they would operate. And so money and resources were moved around to see what could be done... and why leave all the accounts that had been abandoned, forgotten, and sometimes untouched for decades, even centuries, to go to waste? A fair proportion was given, by unspoken prior agreement, to "good causes" - to justify the group’s activities - and some was claimed as "reasonable deductions", but the rest just accumulated. Orac - who had joined in the investigations with some enthusiasm - took a proportion for its own purposes, including developing computer sentience on a more organised basis, while claiming that what had been done in Freedom City was "too boring" to repeat. The amount in the kitty had quickly grown too large to give to the new government - explaining how it had been acquired and enhanced would have required too much work.

****

Vila came to Avon with some documentation.  
'What is this?' Avon asked - he, Deva and some of the others were being sent on a tour of computer centres in some of the more obscure parts of the Federation’s territories, to "investigate any possible obscurities and irregularities persisting from the old regime, such as they had been doing at the centre."  
'I'm saving you and Blake a lot of bother. Look Avon - if I can find you and Deva and the rest of them are putting your fingers where you shouldn't, even if you aren't doing anything too illegal with it, then others will do so - and you can imagine what Blake'd be like, and everybody else'd make your lives a misery.'  
Avon had been expecting some sort of encounter like this - it had been fun while it lasted. 'What do you get out of it? And when Blake finds out what you did?'  
'I'll say I deduced you were bored and gave you something to do... and I'm bored and hope you’ll find me something interesting in return.' Vila grinned. 'We - and the others in the groups - are not administrators, and we deserve better than Cygnus Alpha and one of Blake's longer more in sorrow than in anger speeches.'  
Avon read through the documentation: what was suggested was what he had half-hoped Blake would offer him but never had - and was better than most of the possible alternatives. What would he do with the resources that arose... there would be new possibilities for the group, which had been looking for a further challenge...  
'Are you expecting an invitation to join?'  
'I’ve arranged the ship, got the old crew together - and some of Blake's Gauda Prime group. There’s a flight slot available tomorrow morning.'  
'You're trying to escape as well?'  
'In fact we all are - even Orac's been up to some rearrangements of its own, and claiming government's a waste of its capabilities. I think the rest of us’d agree with that statement though.'  
'And how often do we have to report in?' Avon was willing to be convinced.  
'Whenever we wish... what do you want your legend to be?' Avon was reminded of Servalan's "imagination our only limit." Variants on the comment had occasionally been made over the years - he accepted this was the best way to appeal to him.  
There was an incoming call: Blake, "wishing to discuss something important," said in a manner that led Avon to believe what Vila had done was in the expectation of this occurring. He fobbed Blake off with a proposed meeting the next day, and turned to Vila.  
'There was,' Vila said, 'also a departure slot late tonight, everybody's close by - and the paperwork for the posting could be on Blake’s desk first thing tomorrow morning.'  
As they left Earth Avon felt as happy as he had been during the best periods on the Liberator… and creating the legends he and his group would be remembered by was fun.


End file.
